Camera Crazy

Aren't cameras cool? They're going to use nifty [infrared ones to scan your license plate] to charge you that eight bucks when you enter below 86th. They're going to scan em when you go through some [tunnels and bridges ](http://www.amny.com/news/local/transportation/am-portauthority0622,0,5279004.story?coll=am-transportation-headlines)so you don't have to pay a toll. It's like we've entered some great new spy age of camera gadget gizmos, right?

Well, of course, the greatest thing about us humans is, when we get some restrictive way to monitor our actions, we quickly figure out a way to subvert it. There are already ways to jam the system: [sprays ]and other ways of [blocking](http://www.delonixradar.com.au/products/vf2.html). Or you could just go the old-fashioned route of snagging a license plate from someone's car, attaching it with magnets, whisking through the camera zone and then taking it off once you're through. Of course, these are all illegal and we'd never condone such actions, but in case you were wondering...

But then there's the license plate reader used by cops to locate stolen cars in a [crowded parking lot]. Instead of a guy on foot checking each plate, this nifty device can scan an entire parking lot in like a NY-minute! (that's 15-25 plates per second if you missed that day in algebra.) Of course those pesky civil liberties folks think this device could also lead to some infringements on privacy. But don't they understand it's all only to make us safer?